What We Did {August}

August.

Our last month of summer vacation.

Time to squeeze in as much fun as possible!

We went to the Ogden Utah Temple open house.

What a great opportunity for the kids

to see the inside of a temple before it is dedicated.

We're so grateful to be so close to several temples here.

We broke out the shaving cream one day

for some outside fun.

Coleman enjoyed it so much we tried it again

a few days later inside.  

Outside was definitely a better choice.

Spent some time before church one Sunday

figuring out how to use the remote to my camera.

Apparently Coleman didn't get the memo

that it was fake laugh pose time.

Running through the sprinklers in pajamas?

Oh yes.

We also crammed in a few more trips to Cherry Hill.

Love that place!

Firsties, 2014

Taking pictures of my kids.

Sometimes enjoyable.

Sometimes an exercise in futility.

Case in point:

Offspring #1

First shot,

first day of first grade.

 Offspring #2

Good start.

Can you hold the sign out a little bit?

Out, not up, buddy.

And don't stick your tongue out.

Tongue in your mouth, dude!

Coleman, I need to see your face.

Not that face.

You know what?

Let's just go with our first one...

First day of preschool.

And that, my friends, 

is why I'm glad

there's only one first day of school per year.

Made In the 80's

Welp,

I turned 30.

Despite complaining about it,

stressing over it,

and straight up denying the fact that it was happening,

it happened anyway.

But, if there was any reason to have a party,

I figured this was it.

The Invites

Pretty sure the "don't bring your kids" insert

was 10 times better than the actual invitation.

The Welcome Sign

We had to have some way to let everyone know where the party was!

The Guests

Me & Brett

Mom, Me & Sarah

Devri, Kerensa & Me

Goose?...Or maybe Mavrick?

The Baxters

The Checketts

The Cookes

Kyle and Brett

Julie, Michelle & Me

Julie, Me & Michelle

(Pretty sure we should have gone to high school together)

The Bensons

(technically they have until Sept. 12th

to be official, but we'll give it to them now.)

and the Tueschers.

There was also food, some decor,

(neither of which I had time to take pictures of)

and some guests who managed to avoid the photo booth.

(Tory, Trevor and Jessica...you know who you are)

I'm still not sure how excited I am about being the big 3-0,

but spending the evening with a bunch of friends was pretty much worth it.

4 Year Old Party Time

Growing up,

I remember my sister Sarah always

feeling like she got the shaft because she had a winter birthday.

Me and two of my siblings were all born in August,

so we always got a big combined bbq/birthday party,

which usually took place outside and always ended 

with some sort of water or marshmallow/pvc pipe shooter fights.

Conversely,

I think my little summer birthday boy tends to 

get a little shafted when his birthday rolls around.

August is a busy month for us. 

Not only do we have 3 birthdays and an anniversary,

we've also got your typical summer craziness,

combined with back to school to-dos,

so Coleman's birthday seems to not get quite the attention (planning wise) that Macy's does.

But, we tried to put together a fun shin-dig 

for this awesome little 4 year old.

Presents had to come first, of course.

Coleman was so excited when he opened Macy's

gift to him...her favorite Lambie doll was now his!

(Let's just say the pregnancy hormones got the best of me on this one.

Bawled like a baby.)

Coleman never ceases to surprise me with his cake choice.

I always expect him to pick something he's really "into,"

(most recently, ninja turtles)

but he tends to lean towards the most random.

Case in point: the dragon cake.

But, who says random can't be great?

He was pretty happy with it!

Raphael gear was a must in order to blow out the candles.

When asked, he would only ever say two things he wanted for his birthday:

a skateboard and a snorkel,

so at least we're 50/50 in the gift department.

(And for the love, would one of his parents get him a boyish looking helmet?!)

Coleman at 4

Glamping Again

Don't get me wrong,

I love roughing it in the great outdoors.

But there's always room

for a little glamping every now and again

Faces get painted,

cool animals get held,

and pirate ships even show up! 

In fact, 

this year was so "glampy"

I didn't even stay overnight in the tent 

with Brett and the kids.

Possibly a little too high maintenance,

but I dare you to tell my 8 month pregnant self that.

No takers?

Didn't think so.